This week we 'rowed' The Little Rabbit by Judy Dunn.

This one was extra special to me because I remember it well from when I was a child!

I always loved the real life pictures it contained and the fact that it was about a little girl who had a pet of her own.
Oh, how I wanted my very own pet!

(Which I eventually got.)
So I knew Piper and Taitum would love it too.

Especially Piper.

The day that girl gets her first *real* pet will be an exciting day!

We did some color matching with this story.
This was a suggested activity from the Before Five In A Row manual.

I would point out various colors in the book and Pipe would dig through the crayon box and find the corresponding color.

This ended up being way more fun than it sounds.

It took several tries each time to find the perfect match.

And Piper was very exact about finding just the right color match!

We visited the seniors' home where my grandfather lives and my mom works.

This provided an opportunity for the girls to see a real rabbit - Peter, one of the pets who lives at the home.

They especially liked seeing how his nose wiggled just like the rabbit in the story!

That was most of our week!
Taitum also focused on the color yellow.

My plan is to spend a week on each color by doing simple activities with her.

She's is doing well with her colors but I want her to really get them down pat!

Next week is a busy week for us so instead of moving onto another BFIAR book we are going to continue to look at rabbits using the book Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky.

It was recommended in the manual as a complimentary book to The Little Rabbit and was available at the library.

Also, we will be finishing up our All About Reading Pre-1 program!

She sure is!

(1 of 3 - the other 2 refused to wear a bib! Haha!)

Do you remember your first pet?

And just how excited you were about it?

There is something special about being given the responsibility of looking after a creature and having it live in your house!

My girls love animals and pretty much every other creature you can think of (except for maybe giant snails...hehehe...).

So when I informed them they were going to get their very own pet pets this last Saturday, they were ecstatic.



Especially Pipey who probably has more maternal instincts than I do!

So what woud their very first pets be?

Praying mantids!

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember.

 

The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

This past week involved two memorable moments.

First, Renly as the new in house observer!

Once upon a time this was Taitum's favorite past time - sitting in the high chair, watching her big sister work away on school things.

Now Renly is utterly enjoying these moments, watching her big sisters' every move!

Look out for more and more such appearances!

Want another confession?

I have an easier time doing the things that don't just benefit the earth but also save me money.

Am I a terrible person?
Oh well.

I 'm trying and if a little ulterior motivation is what it takes, than so be it!

Quite the intro to my save the earth/save some money post, huh?!

This one is all about laundry.

And has a whole background story to boot!

It all began when I began using cloth diapers (a story for another day).

The thing with cloth diapers is that you can't wash them with just any ol' detergent.

Thus began my search for the detergent that worked best for us.

To make a long story short, I came across EcoNuts on Baby Half Off and loved how well they worked for washing cloth diapers.
Fast forward to this winter as I was preparing for the arrival of a new baby.
I am generally a little majorly paranoid about chemicals being on my baby's skin.
I figured usng EcoNuts was the best option for washing the new baby's clothes.
But why stop there?
I began washing all our laundry with the EcoNuts.
Clean clothes, no headache inducing scents, no paranoia!



Here's how they work:




And in terms of cost effectiveness, check out this chart!
Yes, yes - they're eco-friendly, too!
You can simply throw those used EcoNuts into your compost...if you do that kinda thing...

In the meantime, I'd been looking into a cost effective way to control all the static.
I have to buy the hypoallergenic, scent-free ones since the smelly ones give me awful headaches.
Of course, they are the most expensive ones!

My search lead me to dyer balls.
But dryer balls are usually about $10 apiece and to work effectively you need 6 or so.
Granted, they last forever but I just couldn't bring myself to fork out $60 for the things!

Enter my good friend Andrea.
She was there with loads of info when I entered the world of cloth diapering and shares many of my domestic interests.
Anyhow, without me even mentioning that I'd been looking into dryer balls she had gone and made me a few!
That's right - she made them!
Here are some pics she took of the process:

Materials: an old wool sweater, wool yarn, pantyhose

And voila!

You can read more about the process here and here!

They work wonderfully and are about as earth friendly as you can get!

Give them a try!

They are well worth the effort!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

We made Clouds in a Jar.

Quite simple but delightfully fun!

It made for a very pretty rainfall!

"I for insects here and there.

J for Jay with jaunty air."

I filled a tub with birdseed (a treat for the jays!), toy insects and a foam alphabet.

The girls went right to town searching for letters ad insects, scooping and pouring the seeds.

The best part?

We got to do it outside in the beautiful sunshine!

Piper figured out the beginnning sounds for each of the animals in the book and added a clothespin to the corresponding letter in record time!

Seriously, this kid knows her letter sounds!
(Printables from Homeschool Creations)

"L for Lizard - look how lazy."

A field trip to the pet store to observe some lizards....

We made some kale chips so we could munch on greens, too!

Then they sprayed them with oil.

And taste tested them....

They weren't so fond of their 'greens'!
But I was proud of them for trying!
If anything, they found the process of making them enjoyable!

 

She figured she'd kill two birds with one stone.

My kids love breakfast.

They wake up with the hugest of appetites.

They shovel all their food in and more often than not, ask for more.

It's nice since it kinda balances the other meals out.

You know - the ones with the "I don't like that"s.

The thing is, I get bored with the same ol' thing every morning.

So I try to change it up each day.

Toast, eggs, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal.

We do it all.

But let's face it - with a 3 month old in tow sometimes anything more elaborate than Cheerios doesn't get doled out to my hungry little monsters!

Then I saw this on Pinterest:

Eureka!

An oatmeal that cooks as you sleep and is ready when you wake up!

And the banana coconut flavour intrigued me.

Saturday night I hauled out the necessary ingredients...